This is a Golden Age for health care. But at the same time new treatments and cures are being developed, Americans are properly concerned about costs. How can the health care system continue to innovate while providing value?
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Our NewsletterIssue No. 68: Is Rebate Reform Finally Final?With only weeks left in its tenure, the Trump Administration’s ambivalence toward pharmacy benefit managers (PBMs) appears to have been resolved at last. On Nov. 20, HHS Secretary Alex Azar and the HHS Office of Inspector General (OIG) “finalized a regulation to eliminate the current system of drug rebates.” The finalizing took awhile. In a Rose Garden speech back in May 2018, President Trump used brutal language to condemn “the dishonest double-dealing that allows the middleman to pocket rebates and discounts that should be passed on to consumers and patients.” But it took until Feb. 6, 2019, for the Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) to place a proposed PBM rebate rule in the Federal Register. Azar, in a speech on June 13, said he would end a system that “pushes prices perpetually higher.” But just a month later, on July 11, 2019, the White House announced a sudden change of mind: “Based on careful analysis and thorough consideration, the president has decided to withdraw the rebate rule.” Almost precisely a year later, the rebate plan was revived when President Trump on July 24 signed four executive orders intended to “deliver lower prescription drug prices to American patients.” And on Nov. 30, the 148-page final rule was published in the Federal Register. It is presented as a revision of the original proposed rule of February 2019. Major parts would go into effect as soon as Jan. 29, 2021. The final version varies only slightly from the original proposal. Read More Here. |
What Others Are Saying"The anger directed at the pharmaceutical and biotech industries overall is misdirected. The single biggest driving force for increased health-care spending in the U.S. is the rising cost of labor, not drugs." "Even if pharmaceutical spending were rising as a share of total health care spending, but that rise was due to pharmaceutical investments driving down expenditures in other health care areas (e.g. a reduced need for more expensive surgeries), then it would still be inaccurate to argue that pharmaceutical spending is driving overall health care inflation." |
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Cost-of-Health-Care News (CHCN) was launched on November 30, 2016, with the aim of providing news and analysis regarding a critical public-policy concern: the costs and pricing of health care. CHCN is published by EAH Strategies, headquartered in Grand Rapids, Mich. CHCN is supported by Pfizer.